AUTONOMOUS TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM AND METHODS

Autonomous and manually operated vehicles are integrated into a cohesive, interactive environment, with communications to each other and to their surroundings, to improve traffic flow while reducing accidents and other incidents. All vehicles send/receive messages to/from each other, and from infrastructure devices, enabling the vehicles to determine their status, traffic conditions and infrastructure. The vehicles store and operate in accordance with a common set of rules based upon the messages received and other inputs from sensors, databases, and so forth, to avoid obstacles and collisions based upon current and, in some cases, future or predicted behavior. Shared vehicle control interfaces enable the AVs to conform to driving activities that are legal, safe, and allowable on roadways. Such activities enable each AV to drive within safety margins, speed limits, on allowed or legal driving lanes and through allowed turns, intersections, mergers, lane changes, stops/starts, and so forth.